Holidays and Crafting

Hi there, the school summer holidays here in the UK are really playing havoc with my routines especially blogging as again it's been a while since my last post.

So what have I been up to....well I've had a lovely holiday in Northumberland at Beadnell.  This area of the country is beautiful; gorgeous beaches, impressive scenery and quite importantly for us this year, relatively local. We were able to get there in about the time it takes for the kids to watch a DVD on the players in the car.....no 'are we nearly there yet' and no fighting, great.

Beadnell Beach

Lindisfarne Castle



Cragside

I've managed a small amount of crafting, thanks to my lovely mum, who has looked after my girls for a few days so that I could crack on with some 'makes' for a craft fair.  The craft fair in question was yesterday and was, I'm happy to say, all in all a good day.  I made some sales, met some lovely people and gained some valuable knowledge from some of the more experienced stallholders that were there.  It's lovely to meet people who are willing to pass on tips and help one another out.  I knew from Handmade Monday what a lovely bunch crafters can be!

My last couple of posts about craft fairs have been a little negative so it's nice to report some positives.  For this fair I decided to concentrate on having some lower ticket items, things that would be attractive to children.  I made some kids totes, pencil cases and coin purses and whilst these are probably not items I will be selling on my website they were good sellers on the stall.

I even got some free publicity at the craft fair.  A local radio station was reporting live and interviewing some of the stallholders, including me.  This was completely out of my comfort zone but hey it's free publicity.

It's time now for me to head over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been doing.  Why not check it out too?

Finding The Right Craft Fair

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my most recent experience of selling at a craft fair.

The fair was not successful to say the least but I had some lovely comments on my blog from my friends at Handmade Monday.  So firstly a big thank you to you all.

These comments helped me to pick myself up, dust myself down and plan my next move.  I learnt a very valuable lesson.....researching craft fairs before booking in is absolutely necessary to establish as much as possible whether it's the right event for me.

 

 

I've compiled this list of areas to look at and questions to ask yourself when researching whether a craft fair is the right event....

 

Location - where is the event? Is it close to public transport, does it have parking facilities? Will there be passers-by or will it be a location where potential customers need to make a specific intentional journey to go there (this will be an issue if the event has not been well publicised)?

Who is likely to attend - what is the demographic of the people attending?  Are your customers likely to go to this type  of event?  If possible get attendance figures from the organisers.  If it is a regular event they may be able to provide attendance figures from previous similar events. 

Frequency - is it a regular event? If it is and it's practical to, visit.  It is easier to make a decision if you've actually been to the event before.  You can see who goes, who exhibits and possibly talk to the organisers.  

Recently I've decided not to book into three fairs having visited them first and believe I have saved myself time and money.  The first I decided was too far away and not large enough to warrant the travel costs.  Another was mid-week, again small and had very low footfall.  It was market day and whilst the streets were busy with people, there was already plenty for them to see on the high street.  They were therefore not venturing off into the hotel where the fair was being held.  The last one again had a low turn-out.  Now all of these were recent and we have had some unusually warm summer weather which may have impacted on the number of visitors to these events...who knows.

Who else will be exhibiting - it will depend on each individual event organiser as to their booking policy and rules over duplicate sellers.  If possible find out who else is exhibiting and ask yourself - do my products fit in? If they do, how many sellers are also selling similar products?  A little competition isn't a bad thing but if there are several sellers all selling similar items it gets more difficult for everyone. 

An issue I had recently was that there were four of us selling handbags.  Myself and another lady were selling handmade handbags and two other stalls were selling mass produced bags they had purchased wholesale.  I won't go into the when is a craft fair not a craft fair issue now, but needless to say there were too many of us selling handbags and handmade lost out.  For some crafters it may be worth considering handmade only events, it's certainly something I will be looking at.

Promotion - ask the organiser what they will be doing to advertise the event.  Check online and in the press yourself to see how widely they have advertised.  If you have booked-in promote the event yourself via your own networks.  It may seem obvious but the more people who know about the event, the more are likely to go and that means a better chance of sales.

Now this isn't an exhaustive list and you may well have some tips you could add, please feel free to do so in the comments below.  I always love to hear about others experiences.

Now on to what I've been making....

My VW Camper Van Totes continue to be popular so I have been making some of those and I have also made these cute kids tote bags for my next fair....

I plan to sell these, along with some cute purses and pencil cases (yet to be made!) for kids too.

I have also finished this Owl print shoulder bag for a customer.

I'm off now to check out what everyone at Handmade Monday has been making.  Why not pop over too?
 

 

Craft Fairs - The Ups and Downs

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog post and unfortunately I missed last weeks Handmade Monday.  Hello everyone, I hope you are well.

 

Since this blog is about my journey into running a small craft business I will be sharing with you the highs and the lows.  I'm sorry to say that this post will be mostly about the lows.

 

I spent the week before last making some new handbags in preparation for a craft fair last Sunday.  Unfortunately the fair was not very successful and left me feeling quite despondent.

 

I am trying hard to look at the reasons why it wasn't successful and turn those into positives that I can learn from, however I'm beginning to feel that the 'craft' in Craft Fair can be somewhat of a loose term. 

 

I must admit I was very prepared in terms of my stock and everything I would need for my stall for the day, however what was lacking was my research of the actual event.  Was this the right place for me to sell my handmade handbags?  In the cold light of day, no it probably wasn't.

 

This particular fair had a number of sellers selling items which they've purchased from a wholesaler and then are selling on.  I'm not saying there is anything necessarily wrong in that, however these are items which can be found on most market stalls in town centres these days and are certainly not individually handcrafted.  In my case in particular there was a stall selling bought in handbags at very low prices.  I could not possibly compete on price unless I was practically giving my handbags away. 

 

However, I can compete on quality.  I know my handbags are of good quality as I've had feedback which supports this.  So the next question is, of the few people who actually attended the craft fair would they a) like my handbags and appreciate the quality and handmade nature of them and b) having liked and appreciated would they buy at the price I ask?  On that particular day at that particular place the answer was a resounding no.

 

I will certainly be doing more research next time.  I'm looking at some upcoming Craft Fairs which advertise as being 'handcrafted only'  and where possible I will be attending as a buyer before committing as a seller.

 

I would be very interested to hear about other crafters' experiences.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

 

As I always like to include a picture or two in my posts here are some of the new handbags I made for the fair.

 

A VW Camper Van Tote Bag and Cross-Body Bag.  The tote bag is lined in the same taupe dotty fabric as can be seen in the photograph. 

 

 

 

I also made a smaller version of the cute owl cross-body bag I showed you a few weeks ago...

 

 

I'm off now to check out what everyone else has been up to over at Handmade Monday

 

Have a great week.

 

 

 

 

My First Guest Blog Post - Craft Fair Top Tips

When I set out on my journey into running a crafting business I read various articles and blogs online (in fact I still do) as well as a few books, one of which was Crafting a Successful Small Business by Joanne Dewberry.  I found this book to be particularly useful: it is broken down into clear chapters covering areas such as Pricing, Branding, How and Where to Sell, Marketing and PR.

Joanne set up her business, Charlie Moos in 2008, selling handmade party bags, quality party bag fillers, cards and wrapping paper. 

Joanne also runs her blog www.joannedewberry.co.uk providing professional business advice.

I had connected with Joanne via Twitter and Facebook and a little while ago she asked if I would like to write a guest post for her blog about my Craft Fair Top Tips.  I was really pleased to do this.  Follow the link to read my Craft Fair Tips for yourself.

My next craft fair is on Sunday, I think I should revisit this article to check I've covered everything.  Over the next week as I prepare I will be checking my stock levels, updating my stock list and making a few more items to add to the list. 

In other news.....

This last week I made a slightly larger cross body bag than my previous ones and included a zipped interior pocket and a recessed zip closure in the bag.  This is the first of my bags to have these features.  I posed a question on both Twitter and Facebook about what are the most important features in a bag and pockets ranked very highly in the responses.  Would you agree?  What features in a bag are most important to you?

I purchased this cute owl fabric a few weeks ago and thought it would be perfect for this bag.  I've teamed it with a chocolate brown cotton lining and cotton webbing for the adjustable  strap.

I also made a few more bags in the gorgeous Clarke & Clarke Retro Floral fabric and the Alfie Scottie Dog oilcloth, these can be seen on my website .

I hope you all have a great week.  It's now time for me to pop over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been doing this week.  Why not take a look.

My First Craft Stall

I haven't updated my blog over the last couple of weeks as I've gone into production mode & haven't had much time for writing.

I was given the opportunity to show my work at the ladies evening at my church. This was to be the first time I would 'set out my stall' so to speak. I really wasn't sure how many bags I would need to take so I spent much of the 3 weeks leading up to the night making as many as I could!

Here is a photo of the final layout.

Thank you to my husband, John who made the stands for me to hang some of the bags from.

This evening was a great experience as I am booked into my very first craft fair soon.

I recently read a blog post about falling sales at craft fairs and the writer was saying that the success of these events shouldn't just be judged by sales on the day as there are other factors to consider which, though not easy to quantify, should be seen as opportunities. 

Although it would always be great to sell lots of product there were some other benefits I experienced from the evening which would be difficult to quantify in a monetary sense but I'm sure are of great value.

Marketing, advertising and PR:
I was able to reach a different audience, showing my products, giving out business cards and promoting my website. In an earlier post I talked about using social media. I've found it great for networking and have achieved sales using it but I was conscious that not everyone uses Facebook or Twitter.

Feedback on my products:
It was lovely to hear the praises people had for my work which was a real boost for my confidence. What was also very useful was the feedback from people about the types of bags they would like to see. A handbag for a lady is a very personal thing and as I've found out women have some very definite ideas about what they like. I've been able to take that feedback away & use it to help me plan what products to be making next.

A gauge for prices:
Pricing is always a difficult thing to get right. There are many ways to calculate the price but ultimately I want a fair reward for the work I've put into making a handbag. One of the things I learnt whilst preparing for this first experience as a stall-holder was to stick with my price formula and to not lose confidence and undervalue my work. If the client feels the product is worth the price being asked (assuming firstly they want the product) then they will pay that price. This paid off and I sold my most expensive bag on the night.

There are other things I learnt from the evening, however I've covered the main things here & I now have some useful tweaks in mind for my next stall. I will let you know how it goes in a future blog post.